Pak Said's another memoir completed

My good neighbour and sifu besar Said Zahari, former editor-in-chief of Utusan Melayu who was detained without trial in Singapore for 17 years, has completed another memoirs in Bahasa Malaysia titled Dalam Ribuan Mimpi Gelisah - Memoir Said Zahari.

After leading a three-month strike by journalists and press workers to oppose the takeover of Utusan Melayu by Tunku Abdul Rahman's pro-British Umno in 1961, Pak Said was ordered back to Singapore (where he was born) and banned from entering Malaya.

He was later detained without trial in Singapore by Lee Kuan Yew's pro-British PAP government in 1963 and his ordeals, trials and tribulations lasted for 17 years from the age of 34 to 51. Pak Said is now 77.

He was accused, without proof of course, of being a " communist" as there was no Al Qaeda or "JI" yet at that time. Surely, the label of "Chinese chauvinist" or " Hindu extremist" or " Christian Marxist" or "Marxist Christian" cannot be used against a Malay Muslim journalist and public intellectual without causing even children in both East and West of Suez (and Colorado Springs) to laugh.

He published his first memoirs Meniti Lautan Gelora: Sebuah Memoir Politik (or Dark Clouds at Dawn: A Political Memoirs in English) in Kuala Lumpur in 2001. Besides English, Meniti Lautan Gelora: Sebuah Memoir Politik is also available in Chinese.

As a progressive Malay who has always been committed to multi-lingualism and multi-culturalism, this latest memoirs would also be published in English and Chinese. I believe Pak Said speaks Mandarin much better than those post-Cold War born-again Chinese and 'Confucianists' like Lee Kuan Yew and Dr. Liong Liong Sik.

This one is going to be intellectualy and politically more explosive than the last. Mark my words.

I will tell you more about the memoirs later from time to time.